


Double Life

by TheFoolsKnight



Category: The Eldest Curses Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Attempt at Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, How Do I Tag, Humor, M/M, Secret Identity, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:41:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29092911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFoolsKnight/pseuds/TheFoolsKnight
Summary: Alec Lightwood-Bane's whole world turns upside down when one seemingly normal day, he gains abnormal powers. Now, along with his daytime job which has put him in harm's way more than once, Alec also has to deal with being a superhero and his annoying new nemesis.But most importantly - how will Alec manage to keep his superhero identity a secret from his husband?
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 19
Kudos: 20





	1. The Convergence

It had been over a year since Alec and Magnus had tied the knot, in a small ceremony by the beach with all their friends and family.

And yet, Alec found himself falling in love with Magnus more and more everyday. Though it was a little hard juggling between his job and his family in the beginning, Alec soon got used to the monotonous routine of waking up, eating, working, and then later in the night, cuddling with Magnus, sleeping, and then repeating. However, Magnus and Alec had promised themselves they would occasionally make sure to break this routine, preferably every weekend.

Today was one of those days.

The candlelight gleamed off of the many rings Magnus wore on his fingers, which were interlaced with Alec’s in the middle of the table. Alec spied their wedding ring among them - it was the only ring Magnus wore on his ring finger - and smiled. 

“See something you like?” Magnus asked teasingly, giving his hand a squeeze. 

Alec grinned at him. “Maybe.”

They had spent the whole day at a fair on the outskirts of the city, and had decided to settle down for dinner in an outdoor restaurant before heading back to their penthouse in Brooklyn. A waiter had collected their orders a few minutes ago, and Alec was tapping his foot under the table while he waited for the food to arrive.

"So," Magnus said, and Alec immediately turned to him to offer his complete attention. "I was thinking-"

"Excuse me, Sirs."

The two of them nearly jumped as an old lady appeared at their table, placing a glass orb on top of the tablecloth.

"Would you like a reading?" she asked the two of them, tracing a finger over the glass surface of the orb.

Magnus gave the woman and her orb a dismissive once-over. "We'll be fine, thank you."

The woman smiled. "I see you don't have faith in my abilities."

Magnus snorted and mumbled under his breath, "Of course not."

To Alec's mild surprise, the woman's smile brightened, and she turned to him. 

"What about you, sir? Would you care for a reading?"

"Um," Alec bit the inside of his cheek, looking from the woman to Magnus, and then back to her. Magnus obviously didn't believe in fortune-telling, and to be honest, neither did Alec. But it was just a bit of fun, wasn't it?

He shrugged. "I suppose so."

The woman clapped her hands together. "Wonderful!"

She gave Alec a long soulful gaze, holding it for so long it nearly became awkward, and then looked into the glass orb.

"Your name," she declared. "Is Alexander Gideon Lightwood-Bane."

"Alec will suffice," Alec told her.

She nodded, and then jerked her head towards Magnus. "And you are married to this handsome young man here, aren't you?"

Alec exchanged a glance with Magnus, whose lips had twitched up into a tiny smile, never one to turn down a compliment. 

"I am," Alec told the woman, a soft smile gracing his features. 

She nodded vigorously, and looked into the glass orb once more. "The two of you first met over work. You're a journalist, and your husband a popular fashion designer. Your first meeting was over an interview a few years ago."

"And you learnt all of this from Paparazzi Weekly, didn't you?" Magnus drawled. Alec's lips twitched up into a smile, and he subtly kicked Magnus’s foot under the table. 

The fortune-teller shot Alec an icy look. "Your husband has quite the sense of humor."

"Thank you," Magnus said, batting his eyelashes. 

"Anyway," the woman sighed, waving her hands about. "Enough of the past. Let us look at the future now."

She turned her eyes up to the sky, her gaze flitting about as if she were looking for something. Then she looked back into the glass orb and said, "Ah, yes, the leylines are to be converged tonight."

Magnus frowned at that. "Okay, now you're just making up gibberish."

The woman shook her head, staring intently into the orb. "No, no, I sense… change. Things are about to change for the two of you."

"For the better or for the worse?" Alec asked, only mildly dreading the answer.

The woman smiled at him. "That will be for you to decide."

She looked back into the glass and frowned. "I can also see that there will be a dent in your relationship soon. Something will wedge itself between the two of you, and you won't notice until it's too late. You will find yourself having to fight against the other more than once."

Magnus snorted. "That's bullcrap."

The fortune-teller shot him an eerie smile. "I'm afraid it's not. Believe whatever you want to."

Magnus scowled, but before he could say anything, the woman picked up her orb with a flourish.

"That'll be it for tonight," she said with a smug grin. "That was only a free trial, but should you ever want the full version-"

"We'll stick to the free trial, thanks," Magnus cut in. 

The woman turned to Alec. "I assume this means you don't want my business card?"

Alec pursed his lips and shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"Very well then," she sighed, and turned away, disappearing into the night.

The two of them watched her leave, and then Alec turned to Magnus, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. 

"Ignore her," Alec said. "We both know what she said wasn't true."

"Obviously not," Magnus scoffed. "Fortune-tellers always lie."

Alec nodded, and then swooped in before an awkward silence could descend over them. "So, you were saying something? Before the fortune-teller came by?"

"Ah yes," Magnus perked up, sitting up straighter, and the night sailed on as if it had never been disturbed in the first place. 

"Yes, I've got it," Alec said, stepping out of the building and nodding to the security guard who'd let him in. 

"Great! I'm so sorry, by the way. I hope I didn't ruin your day," Aline said from the other side of the line. 

Not long after dinner, Alec had received a call from his coworker Aline, asking to retrieve an important pendrive from her desk at the office. Alec had been close to the building anyway, so he'd obliged, and he and Magnus had parted ways, with Magnus returning home.

"It's no problem," Alec said. "I'll call you again later, okay?"

"Sure," Aline said, and the call was cut.

Alec pocketed his phone just as he reached a rather deserted street, laden with abandoned warehouses and an abandoned church somewhere in between. Normally, Alec didn't prefer this route, but it was a shortcut, and he wanted to get home as soon as possible.

But then he caught movement in the shadows out of the corner of his eye, heard the scuffle of a boot against gravel from somewhere behind him, and cursed under his breath. 

Being a journalist meant he had to piss off powerful people sometimes. 

Sometimes, those people retaliated. 

Alec cursed under his breath. The street was too long to make a hasty escape, and Alec had no doubt there would be more men hidden in the shadows. So he ducked into the nearest entrance - the one to the dilapidated church. If memory served correctly, the church shared a wall with an old graveyard. He could jump the wall and get away.

But when Alec entered the back garden of the church, he froze.

Right in the center, floating a couple of inches above the ground was a sword, black as the deepest parts of the ocean. It almost looked as if a beam of moonlight was shining onto the sword like a spotlight, letting it stand out against the rest of the world. Alec stared, transfixed, wondering how the sword had gotten here, and how it was floating.

Moments too late, as a twig snapped somewhere behind him, Alec realised that he had been staring too long and had now lost his chance to escape.

As the sound of footsteps drew closer, he knew he had no choice but to fight back.

Alec looked around. Judging by the faint silhouettes and voices, there were men on either side of the church, heading straight for where he was. The wall surrounding the church was too high. There was no time to scale it. 

So, without thinking much of it, Alec grabbed the sword - and nearly screamed.

White-hot excruciating pain immediately shot up his arms, embedding itself in his heart and spreading throughout his whole body. Alec sank to his knees, feeling the pain wash over him, his vision blurry and his jaw clenched in the fear of accidentally crying out and alerting the men looking for him. 

Then, just as quickly as it came, the pain was gone. 

The night was clear once more, and with a feeling of sinking doom, Alec realised that the sword was gone. 

Panic rose up within him, and he got to his feet, his thoughts flying wildly. He'd had several close encounters before, but this…

He remembered his family, his friends, and  _ Magnus. _

_ I'm so sorry. _

The first of the men stepped into the clearing, and Alec froze, feeling every bit like a deer caught in the headlights. He watched one of the men's gaze slide over the garden… and pass right through him. 

Alec blinked, confused, as one of the men turned on his associates. 

"You said you saw him come in through here!" he accused.

"I did!" the associate protested, flailing his arms about. "I swear."

The first man cursed under his breath, running a hand through his hair. "He must've escaped."

He called out to the rest of his men and they retreated, grumbling, away from the church. Alec stood still, waiting for the last of them to leave, and then sighed in relief. He was still confused, however. What had just happened?

Alec reached up a hand to run through his hair, and froze when he realised he could see  _ right through it.  _

He wiggled his fingers right in front of his eyes, yet all he could see was the overgrown shrubbery of the garden. Alec looked down, and realised that his entire body was in the same state.

_ Am I… invisible?  _

As soon as the thought occurred to him, a sort of tingle spread throughout Alec’s body, like static electricity, and he was soon visible to himself again. 

_ What the hell just happened?  _ Alec wondered. It was all so  _ weird.  _

He decided to shrug it off for now, and was about to leave when he realised that there was a sort of weight on his shoulders, pulling resistance from the wind above. Alec looked up, and gasped. 

Sprouting from his back was a pair of large white wings, shining brightly against the dark night sky.


	2. Routine Life

Alec walked through the graveyard to the other end, wings fluttering behind him and his phone in his hands, several text drafts flitting through his head as he stared at his chat with Magnus.

_ So, something really weird just happened… _

_ Magnus, you're not gonna believe this, but I have wings now.  _

_ I think I drank too much redbull. _

He sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face, deciding to give up on texting Magnus for now. He could tell Magnus in person, anyway. 

_ But _ , he thought, gently stretching his new wings.  _ Is this something that needs to be told at all? _

Alec shook the thought out of his head and reached the fence of the graveyard. He looked up at it for a moment before scaling it, his wings adding some much needed momentum as he dropped to the other side of the fence. There was only a nearly empty road here, with a few convenient stores open and some stragglers loitering around, most of them drunk. A drunk man gave Alec an odd look as he passed by. Alec shrunk under his gaze and picked up his pace, wondering if they could see his wings. He hoped not. 

As he walked, Alec thought back to what happened in the Church. Him grabbing that sword, and then turning invisible and sprouting a pain of wings. It couldn't be a coincidence. 

Lost in his thoughts, Alec almost didn't notice when his feet carried him to the foot of his and Magnus’s apartment. He took a deep breath, staring at the doorman and hoping he didn't see Alec's wings. To his surprise and relief, the doorman barely gave him a second glance as he walked into the apartment. 

Alec pressed the button for the elevator, and when it arrived after a few seconds, attempted to step into it, only to be stopped by his wings catching on the walls on either side of the elevator. He stepped back, momentarily surprised. It appeared that even though others couldn't see his wings, they were still there, pliable and solid and very likely to be a nuisance while he tried to get into an elevator. 

Grumbling internally, he turned and stepped sideways through the elevator doors, pausing when he still had one of his wings sticking out of the elevator. 

Alec glared at his wings while he considered his options. If he didn't fit in the elevator, he'd had to turn to the stairs, and he did not have the energy to climb up to the penthouse of what was a twenty storey building.

_ You could try to fly,  _ whispered a voice in the back of his head. 

Alec bit his lip. If only he could fold his wings-

Right. Of course. 

Having wings was like having a second pair of arms. An extremely weird second pair of arms. He suspected that if he tried to fly, he'd have to flap them the way he used to flap his arms when he'd pretended to fly as a child. Alec tried not to think of that. 

Instead, now he looked at the wings themselves, at the way they were built. Focusing on them, Alec willed them to fold, as if he was drawing his elbows close to his body. Thankfully, the wings drew close, their curved ridges curling around Alec's shoulders like a jacket. The elevator doors closed with a  _ ding.  _ It was a miracle that they stayed open this long. 

As soon as Alec got off the elevator on his floor, the door to the penthouse opened and Magnus stepped out, looking harried.

"There you are!" Magnus exclaimed, rushing towards Alec. He was dressed for bed, in a fluffy robe and bright pink pajama pants, his face free of makeup.

Before Alec could say a word, Magnus drew him into a kiss, his arms going around his body. Alec stilled, waiting for the inevitable touch between Magnus’s arms and his wings, and the questions that would come right after. 

Instead, Magnus’s arms seemed to pass right through them, settling on Alec's waist instead. He resisted the urge to frown. So, his wings couldn't pass through inanimate objects, but they  _ could  _ pass through people?

He really needed a drink now. 

"Where have you been?" Magnus asked, drawing away just the slightest bit, his hand coming up to caress Alec's cheek.

"I… ran into some goons on the way," Alec admitted. It wasn’t a lie anyway.

Magnus froze. "Alexander-"

"I'm fine." Alec shushed him with a kiss to the corner of Magnus’s mouth. "See? I'm right here."

Magnus’s lips twitched into a smile, a hair's width away from Alec’s. 

"That I can see." Magnus pulled away some more, looking over Alec's body. Alec's breath caught on his throat for a moment, but he released it when Magnus’s eyes skimmed over his wings. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Not at all," Alec said with an assuring smile. Briefly turning invisible and gaining wings didn't count as 'hurt', right?

It took them a moment to realize they were still outside the penthouse, and then two more for them to stumble indoors, Magnus closing the door behind him. Thankfully, Alec had the sense to fold his wings right before he entered home.

Their home was a complimentary mix of both their personalities, most of which was Magnus’s doing. The living room had a deep red couch and loveseats, set against bright golden walls splotched with green and blue. Opposite the middlemost couch was a large television, with two antique swords handing from the wall on either side. 

Alec crossed the room and slumped into the couch, Magnus sitting right next to him. For a moment Alec was afraid that his wing would get squished between Magnus and the couch, but just like before, Magnus’s back seemed to pass right through the feathers of Alec's wings. 

"So," Alec said, cautiously leaning in to rest his head against Magnus's shoulder. "Aren't you going to lecture me? About doing dangerous things with dangerous people?" 

Magnus snorted. “It’s not like you’re going to listen to me anyway.”

Alec murmured something in agreement.

“Although now that you mention it-“ Magnus shifted slowly towards Alec, taking care not to disturb him. “What route did you take?”

“Um-“ Alec hid a wry smile in the crook of Magnus’s shoulder. “That street with the warehouses.”

“Tsk,” Magnus said disapprovingly. “No wonder you got ambushed.”

“I made it out,” Alec pointed out.

“You did.” Magnus leaned back into the cushions, wrapping an arm around Alec. He let his eyes slip close, and felt Magnus’s face turn towards him, placing a kiss on his forehead. “But be more careful from now on, okay? No more empty streets.”

Alec thought back to the ambush earlier today, how he’d almost died. Hell, he would’ve definitely died if it weren’t for that mysterious sword, and the inexplicable invisibility soon after. He suppressed a shudder.

“Okay,” was all he said.

Magnus hummed in agreement, then asked, “Would you like a drink?”

Alec grinned. “You read my mind.”

Magnus chuckled and stood up, going to the kitchen to fetch that drink.

Sleeping was next to impossible that night. 

Alec lay awake for a long time, shifting this way and that to find the right position for his new wings. When he did find a good position, he was disturbed by a multitude of sounds - the meager amount of cars that passed by several floors below, the hum of conversation from somewhere else in the apartment, even every single beat of Magnus’s heart.

So he gave up on sleep and just decided to face Magnus and stare at him until morning came.

Except when he turned to face Magnus, it was to find him staring up at the ceiling, wide awake. 

“Can’t sleep?” Magnus asked, his eyes flitting over to look at Alec.

Alec settled on his side, shifting a little closer to Magnus. “No.”

Magnus sighed and turned to face him. “Me neither.”

Alec pouted. “And tomorrow is a Monday.  _ Great.” _

Something in Magnus’s eyes flickered, and he reached out, brushing a hand against Alec’s face. “I missed you.”

Alec’s lips curled up into a tiny smile. “I’m right here, you know.”

“I know.” Magnus returned the smile. “I just feel like… like we’re just working all day and then falling into bed together, you know? Sometimes it’s like you’re not even there.”

“I’ll always be there for you,” Alec said, his voice so low it almost sounded like a whisper. “I know it doesn’t seem that way sometimes, with our clockwork routines, but I am.”

“I wish I could burn all of it down. All of the mundane routines and what not.” Magnus muttered petulantly. “And then we could go on a permanent vacation to Bali or somewhere else.”

“That’s illegal,” Alec pointed out with a smile. “Bali sounds nice, though.”

Magnus let out a low hum of agreement. A moment of silence passed, then Magnus said, “So, are we going to try to go to sleep, or…?”

Unbidden, Alec’s lips curled up into a sly smile. “I do have a few ideas of what we could do.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Magnus grinned.

“Yeah.” 

Alec propped himself up on his elbow, and dimly registered the flutter of of his wings as he moved in to kiss Magnus.


	3. First Flight

Alec woke up to the sound of Magnus’s voice and their cat, Chairman meow’s plaintive mews.

He rolled over in bed, mindful of his wings, and found Magnus sitting at the edge of the bed, Chairman meow. 

"You naughty little cat," he was saying, booping the cat on the head. "Why did you that, hm?"

"What happened?" Alec asked, sitting up in bed. 

Magnus looked at Alec, shooting him a half-smile. "Chairman meow knocked over the lamp from the nightstand."

He didn't sound angry, however. Magnus turned back to Chairman meow, baby talking him the way one did to a mischievous child. However, as Alec looked at the broken pieces of the lamp on the floor, he had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't the Chairman who broke it.

For now, however, he simply shrugged it off and got up to get ready for the day.

The subway was too cramped for Alec's taste that morning. He grumbled to himself as he stepped out onto the platform, freeing his wings from the throngs of people inside. Monday mornings were already hard without throwing wings into the mix.

Alec rolled his shoulders as he walked, the morning sunlight warming his skin and the feathers of his wings. He stopped by a cafe, thankfully empty, on the way to grab a cup of coffee.

As he continued his walk to the office, now with coffee in his hands, Alec's phone rang.

"Hello?" he said, picking up the phone.

"Hey, dumbass," came his sister's voice from the phone. Alec’s lips quirked up into a tiny smile.

"Hey yourself," he said. 

"Is that the best you've got?"

Alec rolled his eyes. “Just get to the point, Izzy.”

Isabelle sighed. “Okay, fine. You free Saturday night?”

“Why?” Alec asked, frowning.

“We’re planning a triple date,” Isabelle said. “At Taki’s.”

“Must you?” Alec mumbled.

“What was that?” came Isabelle’s very clearly sceptical tone. 

“Nothing!” Alec deflected. “So, Saturday, huh? I’ll have to ask Magnus.”

“Why must you two be like this?” Isabelle mused. “I called Magnus before I called you, and he said and I quote, ‘I’ll have to ask Alec’. You two are like the adult version of ‘go ask your mom’.”

“Oh, shush,” Alec said, but there was a small smile on his face. “So-“

Alec’s voice broke off as he bumped into someone, hard, sending a flurry of papers into the air. He managed to catch himself, but the other person wasn’t so lucky. They crashed to the ground, followed shortly by the flyers they were carrying. 

“I’ll call you back,” Alec said into the phone, knowing fully well that he  _ wouldn’t  _ be calling Isabelle back. He crouched, helping the person pick up their flyers.

“I’m really sorry,” they said, scrambling to pick up the flyers, all of them advertising some restaurant opening.

“Don’t be,” Alec reassured. They both stood up, having salvaged as many flyers as they could. Alec held out the stack of papers he held and the person snatched them immediately, making a run for it.

Alec bit back a wince and turned his hand over, looking at the paper cut on his finger - a consequence of the papers being snatched off his hands so quickly. He sighed and made a mental note to put a bandaid on it.

Except by the time Alec reached his desk and retrieved his first-aid supplies, the cut was gone.

Alec was just thinking of how horrified Magnus would be if he knew that Alec was ignoring his work in favour of poking at his hands with a paper cutter, just enough to break skin, over and over again and watching as his skin knit itself back together, when his phone rang.

He grinned when he saw the caller ID, and picked it up.

“I was just thinking of you,” he said.

“Only good things, I hope?” came Magnus’s mellow voice from the other side of the line.

“Of course,” Alec said with a smile. “Is this about Isabelle’s call?”

“Yes,” Magnus sighed. “She’s been blowing up my phone all afternoon.”

“I’m sorry,” Alec offered. 

“Don’t be. She just thinks I’m more likely to answer than you.”

“That only comes after ages of me ignoring her texts,” Alec said, tossing the cutter aside. It was clear that he had some insane healing powers too, but he didn’t dare push his luck any further. “I suppose we’re going then?”

“Of course,” Magnus said. “I’ll text Isabelle to let her know.”

“Cool,” Alec leaned back into his chair, and then immediately straightened again. “Hey, Magnus?”

“Yes darling?”

He bit his lip, thinking back to what Magnus had said last night.

_ I feel like we’re just working all day and then falling together into bed at night. _

“Do you wanna grab dinner together tonight?” he asked. “If you’re free, that is.”

There was a stunned sort of silence for a moment, and then Magnus spoke, and from his tone Alec could tell he was smiling.

“For you darling?” Magnus said. “I’m always free.”

After talking with Magnus, Alec sat at his laptop, pulling up incognito mode on his browser and searching up all of his symptoms - wings, and healing powers, and weird swords hanging mid-air, and - Alec noted absentmindedly, that he was much more awake than he usually was in the afternoon. He didn’t know if it was just a side effect of whatever was going on with him or if his curiosity simply made him more energetic.

A couple of hours later, Alec slumped back into his seat, defeated. There were only over a couple hundred articles on the subject, and all of them made no sense. They all contained strange words like ‘convergence’, ‘nephilim’ and ‘seelie’, which absolutely made no sense, at least not in this context.

Alec groaned and got up to go fetch himself a coffee, stretching his necks to remove any crinks. The coffee room was across the floor, and as he walked, he allowed himself to stretch out his wings, the nimble feathers brushing across the ceiling. Alec frowned a little and lowered his wings a fraction, hoping he didn’t get any dust on them.

When he reached the door, Alec simply reached out and pulled it open like he always did. The door, however, didn’t budge, so he pulled it again, this time with a hard tug. 

He didn’t expect the door to rip open with the lock broken and handing off its edge. Someone gasped from inside, and Alec looked up to see a couple, huddled against a wall and-

“Oh my God,“ Alec gasped, stepping away and averting his eyes. “I’m so sorry-“

He pushed the door close and turned and  _ ran,  _ not stopping until he reached his desk. He dropped into his chair and put his face in his hands, groaning.

“You okay there?”

Alec’s head jerked up, only to find Simon, his coworker and Isabelle’s boyfriend, poking his head into his cubicle.

“Uh, yeah,” Alec said, shaking himself out of his stupor. “Yeah, it’s just… there were people in the coffee room.”

Simon snorted, a grin of amusement taking over his face. “I know you’re not fond of people, but I didn’t realise it was  _ this  _ bad.”

Alec stared at him, deadpan. “They were having sex, Simon.”

“Oh.” Simon’s grin slipped, and an awkward silence descended on the two of them. At last, Simon broke it by saying, “So, um, are you planning to watch the new Lady Fierce movie?”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “Lady Fierce?”

“Yeah!” Simon lit up, the way he did when he talked about - oh no - nerd things. “It’s a classic superhero movie, of course - someone completely normal gains superpowers because of radioactivity or magic or aliens or whatever, and then they have to get the hang of them and use them to defeat evil. Me and Isabelle are planning to go together soon.”

“Oh?” Alec said, his interest piqued by what Simon said. Not the part about him and Isabelle going together, obviously, but the part about people gaining powers.

It sounded eerily like what was happening to him.

“I’ll think about it,” Alec said for now.

“Sure thing, bro!”

Simon returned to his own cubicle, and Alec shook his head and turned back to work.

Except no matter how much he tried to focus, Alec simply couldn’t.

After a couple of hours, Alec simply gave up and went up to the rooftop of the building, staring down at the rest of the city. The sun was only beginning to set, hues of pale orange dancing off the glass windows all around. The rooftop was lined by a short fence, and Alec sat leaning against it, the feathers of his wings and his hair swaying in time to the breeze that fluttered about.

He thought back to what Simon had said about superheroes. Is that what he was now? A  _ superhero? _

Alec bit his lip. He still had no idea how to feel about all this.

He frowned a little. It couldn’t be all that bad, right? It wasn’t like the city had any supervillains who needed defeating.

_ Although,  _ Alec thought,  _ I do need to learn how to control my powers. _

He couldn’t afford too many accidents, either because of his wings or the insurmountable amount of strength that led him to breaking a lock today. Also, he didn’t know how many broken items the Chairman could take the blame for.

_ Alright, then. _

Alec stood up, stepping away from the fence. He held up his hands in front of him, remembering how he’d turned invisible that night.

Alec focused on them, imagining seeing right through them, his body disappearing for the rest of the world to see.

In the blink of an eye, Alec’s hands disappeared. He looked down at himself, surprised at how unfazed he was about all this, and noticed he couldn’t see the rest of himself - clothes included - either.

He took a deep breath, feeling very aware of his wings. This was the next step he had to tackle - flying.

After all, if he had wings, he  _ could  _ fly, right?

Another deep breath, and then Alec closed his eyes, moving his wings in small, fluttering motions. He remembered his swimming lessons from his childhood, how he was taught to utilise the resistance of water to his advantage, to push against it.

_ A powerful stroke, followed by a gentle stroke. _

First, he thought, he’d try to fly upwards. He imagined himself surrounded by water, drowning, and the only way to go was up.

_ A downstroke, then an upstroke. _

Taking one last deep breath, Alec reached out as high as he could with his wings, then brought them down in one large, powerful downstroke. 

Alec’s eyes flew wide open when he realised his feet had lost contact with the ground. He hovered mid-air for a brief second before dropping down from lack of a propelling, stumbling against the gravel.

He stood still for a moment, feeling as if the breath had been knocked out of him. Then he tried that again, beating his wings not once, but twice, thrice, and kept going until he was hovering a few feet off the ground.

Alec looked down at the gravel covered roof, and a laugh broke out of his lips unwillingly. He was  _ flying.  _ He was  _ actually  _ flying.

He carefully let himself down, and then ran to the fence. The opposite building was only a few stories shorter, the road between them wide enough for a whole other building to fit.

It was a stupid idea.

It was the most stupid, most reckless idea he’d ever had.

Regardless, Alec moved away from the fence, until he was at the opposite end of the roof. He took another deep breath, his heart pounding hard in his chest, and ran.

Alec crossed the roof sooner than he’d expected - he must’ve gained the ability to run faster, too - and leaped across the fence.

For a moment, his heart clenched in fear, and then his wings came down with a sound that sounded a lot like the blood rushing in Alec’s ears.

_ A powerful backstroke, then a gentle frontstroke. _

And before he knew it, Alec was flying across the city, over the glass laden skyscrapers, an overjoyed whoop tearing itself out of throat.


End file.
